The Art of Wedding Filmmaking

Lesson 7 of 35

Lighting an Interview Setup

The Art of Wedding Filmmaking

Lesson 7 of 35

Lighting an Interview Setup

Lesson Info

Lighting an Interview Setup

What we can do is we'll set up a interview aligning interview set up and we're going to do with studio lights and I'll show you how I cut the light and control the light we'll use a light panel which has a few banks in there so generally these life I'll show you um someone to uh the other one the light spread it it's quite it's quite wide so the idea is and I'll show you that you want to control the lining and isolated I'll just bring it thank you very much make sure they don't break anything okay cool my good here yeah okay so um there are other types of lights you can use you can use even aquino this's basically it's you know the name but it's it's it's a light panel with this there's ones that have different amounts of like globes banks you want full bank and six bank this is one two three four five six honestly you wouldn't even need six banks but this is what we have today and it works great so you have that and I'll show you I'll do the setup but I'll just quickly just go through...

the little bits and pieces that you need the top the lights we have a debtor life or the aussies data we say you got a date oh yeah I've got a date a late oh you got a date a lot on dh these great for this exercise will use it as a hairline maybe some of you online of thinking really fruit for winning honestly I think not only its it's really beneficial for the waiting type stuff because you got two lights and you can do it really quickly and like I said you don't do the setup when the subject is a well the bride or the groom is there and also you could take this information and use it for other shoots like commercial shoots because with the wedding filmmaking as in terms of business that is like kind of on like a step to other things that you could be doing so it's important to kind of know the setup because you can use it for weddings and you can also use it for your your corporate commercial shoots okay so um we're going to do this with one camera we're going to use again the fifty mill as a main camera a mid shot we're going to set up the key line we're gonna have a hair light on we're gonna be cutting the key line because what I'm going to also be doing is lighting the set design for the background and what that does it gives dimension dynamics in the shot lighting okay so I understand that quinn is going to jump in and be my subject yeah come on come on down you on the al fios shooting price is right. Okay, that was pathetic. I'm sorry yeah that's cool just stand there so what I'll do is I'll get my key light firstly set that up and again like the idea is to have an assistant to do all this because you don't want to be setting up while the subject is there they go like oh you've done you've done that get a bit annoyed well general, they wouldn't get annoyed but you know it's kind of common courtesy that's kind of fine I just wanted to make sure another thing is well, guys that you want to make sure that these things are secure right because you want like, safety first a witness I don't know if you guys have a witness occupational health safety yeah so you want to make sure that I would actually need someone to hand me a sandbag? Um generally you wouldn't need a sand back for these things because I would recommend something small in the news but because we're in a studio with doing this for real and I want to demonstrate that no matter for what reason whether it's a demonstration or a lot of real shoot you need to have these things right because you don't want this thing to falling on anyone that's like bad news okay so just have that they're ready when I set up my life just bear with me I'm just gonna like move around make some room and obviously like, you know, I'll assess the space and this's quite compact so I probably wouldn't go with this light but I'm going to make some room and make it work but generally something with a full bank or like akina smoky no one of the smaller type kino lights you know it will be great and you'll be thinking I don't have these lights you gonna read them? We'll go through that throughout the course that you know you don't have you don't need to have every single type of equipment and when it comes to the lenses, which we'll get into later all right, so I made this I'll set this up over here okay, so I got my to date a light one of them will be my headlight and one will be to light up the background so we do have a little bit of light in him but I'll probably up for we're going to kill we are eventually kill we are okay, so you'll see it will kill the light so that we can see that we're lying and being very controlled without lighting is gonna plug this in now this is all good to go yet okay, now these light panels also this one checking there are ones that you can turn them on at different intervals so you can have like one bank only two banks on or full banks on I would I would like for that feature because then you have the control to kind of dim it down and have it softer. Ok, so I got my key light there and then what I'll do is I will have some diffusion paper just too soft the lights off in the light and could someone pass me a roll which is there and I do have should have some pigs I had him here. Thank you, lilly off so reps and pigs things that really kate up heaps like they're pretty good in that aspect but you have some lights for example the data if you gonna put like, some paper on that too soft the light for different applications, which I'll show you later, you know, you want to use the wooden pegs because if it's metal or if it's if you stick them on with gaffer and you have to take it off or tape tape can get like melter than you touch the bond, the bond doors or the line it's hot so you gotta bet any mind? So these things wooden pegs um, you know, there there lifesaver. You know, just make life I've had times when I didn't have them and I kind of had to improvise and I touched the data light when it's really hot hot, just careful cables, okay so something what I do first is like just get like a general kind of ideal want frame things like this and not lighting this is just kind of get my frame right? Okay kind of weird like he's in a big screen because you used to like this little thing and then I got this speaks so good. Okay, okay, what do you think what's going through your head right now so now I'm looking at the set design and obviously becoming the screen but we just pretend that the screens on their way have this season so I got my framing, which I'll tweak anyway but I just wanna have it like roughly where we want it I skate looking here cool awesome you very much. Yeah. So now just cup that's what I want to do is I want to soften the light is I said before you want to change the source of the light so then it comes from the diffusion so it it's a it's a lot more pleasant andi just hits the subject ah, in a soft way yeah, they're let's do this. Okay, so so this as I'm demonstrating you should not be doing this on set um so have you have your papers ready so that is good and just basically what we want to do, we have um you want to have enough to cover it but you don't want too much uh s o actually authority cut which is good um we'll use this one to get you to move that take it away you might keep that there. Cool. Okay, so that's good now like I said, you can actually get well good yeah, you can actually get these special screens actually attack there that you attach them to the bundle this thing we call the vandals but on great so this is another way you can do it so I'm just looking at the wanna have a little bit of like just put it there and then this little piece right doesn't go to waste right? You can use that for your your data, right? Things may seem cheaper than not s o you want to kind of conserve them in using for a different lights so you can kind of maybe cut that in half and you can use it on your data on dial show you later how you can use it for other things at the wedding okay, so keep that aside I don't want to waste that oh my my pegs so now it's been look in that box you know, like suffering the light so I just turned it on so now if we could kill the house lights I'll turn this on me that works so the first thing you need to do, you've got your key light on and again, this is your assistant, you know, you're not getting your sub um, you want to get the angle now you can have this different looks. Sorry, there's, different looks you could go for, right? We all know that you could go for, like, really dramatic, but when you're dealing with weddings in general, don't want to go with too dramatic so you don't want to have the light like close to ninety degrees you want tohave it like maybe forty five something like down a slight angle. So you get you get some yuki light's keeping his face on the right and you get a little bit of spill little spill on the other side, okay? And then I can show you how we can if you want, you can fill it with the phone call, so I'll come here position my life once I've done that, I come here. Yeah it's too dramatic for me. Cool now that's still kind of like there's, a bit of light contrast say like, you know, but I can use a little bit of field and you may be thinking, this is taking so long, but just kind of going through the steps, this is really quick that you can do next thing is as you can see us you guys what what where do you see the light on the subject like what? You see the light on quinn? He said yes so where is the light hitting him it's like his face and he's like he's sure it's like all over place, right? So what you want do you want to control the light right? So you can kind of not so much like specifically just get on his face but you just wanna kind of, like, shape it a little bit and also you've got some spill right on the background and what you want to do is I'll show you you want to control the light so you can isolate it too just like iran here and then what we'll do, we'll light it up separately again this this will take like two special won't take very long you don't have to use us like another data, but you can have like a lab in the back. I've improvised so many times I've like done like different shoots for, like different like weddings and for commercial shoots, and I just happened to find this little lab similar to what we had before and I say, you know what? I'm going to use that I'm gonna put on the ground it's just going to like I spilled a little bit alive. The idea is you just want to have suffered a lot in the background, which I'll show you okay, as I mentioned before, these things are so called this so useful, so versatile phone call you get them at art shops and you can we're going to use them to cut the light and can also use it to reflect a little bit now to hold the phone call you need reflect the holders and I'll show you and light stands now we don't know anything now, obviously being a creative lives, they have thes they're the ones that they generally used for for the one that a full metal like commercial shoots and stuff, but you can actually get ones that are just for because these are designed for other things and just phone call mean toe hold heavier things um but you can actually get ones that I like made of plastic they're really like right? I think they're made of fibreglass some sort of you know there's reflect the holders that are not medal I would recommend going for them. So if you go to your local supply shop rent rental place where they have this this equipment I would ask for reflect the holders that are not meddle but for this example and a really simple life stand because look, these things are so life you know I mean there's like cardboard so actually don't these there's a great you don't need them because you want to travel light that's the idea so okay so the first thing I'll do is I'm gonna control the light kind of coming from the bottom so I'm trying to it in a way that's not gonna block so I'm just gonna turn this one thing okay so just lead with that on and you see what I've done here just quickly say I want the white on facing up I want the black so just switch it around okay? So it's there just on that I'm live about pressure uh they're watching me okay so like I said you could use like the clips on the thanks man yeah just, um not just stay on there because like the ones that I was referring through the clips actually like part of like this one with a lot smaller um almost there way go right so you got that there now just pay attention to the subject now right now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to just cut the light first point of cutting off what you see what I'm doing that you're back not too much that's too much like normal light so just control a little bit and then I'll just raise it so what you doing this is what you're doing you are shaping the light bit like sculpting right you have like clay and you want to make you want to make something right he's shaping it so you get the right the specific look and the design this is the same thing you're designing the life that's in photography so just kind of tweak this a bit and just like that that's good then I've got I still got some spill was going to come here they have got I've got to spill coming through here so you can get another one of these which is thank you and this is the last one like you don't have to go overboard with this and I can assure you that if you get the light stands that are light and the reflector holders that has like a lot lighter than this it would be so like noisy and would be very easy so I'll just sorry I'm going to come through there okay? Oh sorry wrong side knowing people are watching me I go doing I feel kill so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to cut the light that because that light on the back it's coming from here so I'm gonna cut that I'll show you how I'm gonna do that you probably don't need that much of phone call but that's what I have I can work with it you don't need that much okay maybe I'll just put it there here we go so what's the background pay attention to the background now with this particular lighting setup so you're flagging off the light obviously so you're trying to dimensional eyes what's happening what is this just for individuals? If there's couples if there's other people involved would you have to completely reshape the light again? It will be a little bit differently sir we'll be very similar but obviously you want to make sure that there is even like between the two subjects so yeah that's something you need to bury mine but the concept is still the same you shaping the light you know you want oh, you want to add dimension not just on his face but dimension in the whole frame you know, andi, I think this adds a lot of value. Some people may disagree, mate possibly that for winning its cycle just winning if you get the right equipment that won't take you long. Like I said, they're our options where it's light and fast you don't need that much of it like a big light you get smaller ludes tight like this big yeah and there's one that I will show you and go through from the lighting kit that we use you can even use that so you can go for very low impact just look at this not so much in terms of the specific light but what you need to do that's the that's the point of this exercise so um looking so yeah that's good and then just come down to obviously that the sittings but before I do that I think a nice a little hair light you know if you could even use a lead zilla guys heard of the lead zola's it's by data it's a lot smaller but you know we can use the data but it's another option where and I'll think I don't have any image but if you look up lead zilla there like this big and it's by data and its battery run so there's no court there's no cables right and they're really also strongly recommend them because extremely versatile so just moving over here very quickly this is a very quick you know you want to you want to spend too much time fooling around you know this should be just quick the subject said I mean your assistance there and the good thing about these data lights they are they can spot okay well I've pointed and I've got the liberty off using the screen okay and then you can okay so this one here doesn't have doesn't have a demon I would recommend so I'll come there if you're getting when getting going toe I recommend you go through the gear that one this is the one fifty dead alive which I think is really versatile you want to get the one with with a demon just give you the leverage thie option to dim down so what I would do very quickly here is go to my my paper here soften it a bit strong kind of going against what I said I'm going to use a bit of gaffer but it's gonna be really quick please don't hold it against me you said no get her just don't leave it on too long because it does hate often and it's not ideal okay so okay so I've changed changed of stuff in the light of change the source and we did too much that's fine it's gonna be subtle you know, like you don't like overkill yuki light is your yuki like that's your first you number one like you probably like this one here is just kind of add a little bit of dimension yeah, so it's just a little bit you can actually get a little bit stronger so with the demo you can just do it up a little bit higher but you can see that I've done something there okay and last but not least very quickly so very simply like you know you kind of clean up your shot right clean you shut up dont have anything hanging will leave the desk here because I need that teo go through the gear in a moment but you know if you have like something here as they like again like it's some sort of like set design I don't have to be like a city's I could be here to be liked it could be a bookshelf there right it could be anything the idea is you wanna subtle light on on the on the background for the object could be I don't know it could be like a suitcase of some sort and what you do is you something that maybe reflects who they are so you know generally if you're at like a bride's place with groom's place and he's into other g I joes or he's into football football just pretend it's a football and you light it up so what I might do do we have like a little I think I saw like a little bench that round one over there good to see like how you can just it's so easy just light it up that's cool don't work these people one day they're on the ball just some people just do that okay so just to highlight you know obviously I wouldn't have the desk here the rule is clean your shot just have what you need to have you know um otherwise it's a distraction okay I really need to look at the whole frame so you can let this thing really well and it's placing and people enjoy it and be drawn to the story because that's what it's all about another another another rule or another thing to think about when you using lights is sometimes you don't necessarily need to like dim it down you could just actually moved back because see if I got this for I remember every meeting you move back yourself the light is goes down four times something like that basically you know, the more you move back you can actually control the intensity of the light doing it that way with photography were always really cognizant of where our catch lights are andan wondering if in videography when you set up these interviews is the same when you're putting your key light is it also always in the back or funny your mind like I'll have to have his eyes alive his eyes are like so I can always always need to have the catch light in his eyes are heroes that's correct? Is that what you're always yeah definitely you want to like I'm answering your question right? Like you want to be subtle with your lighting but you want to be able to show the emotion the eyes that we mean like yeah, just some guys don't look dead like I can't see myself when I look back so I can tell I don't have like nice big catch lies I'm sure because the light is so big but I'm wondering in situations where you're working with maybe that natural light in the window if you can't see the eyes do you ever bring in another light to beat to light the isa possibly I try not to incorporate too many lights because it's very very easy to overdo it you know especially feel it's I'm not a massive fan of going overboard with fuel light I think it's nice to have a little bit of like dimension in the shape it's nice you know a fine just I've seen things way also learning but I've noticed people are very excited to kind of like ok put this key line was going you know, put another white here and make sure it's like a well lit up you know so it's just shaping it just making sure you got some shape but there's other ways you can probably like a lower the light but you don't wanna have it slightly do you wanna kind of pointed up it's not very pleasant what I'll do I'll just kind of like finish this and then I can show you how it all looks and then you can ask me some questions I'll set up that that background like now I wouldn't like the background life directly onto it I find the best way is to light it from the side and by doing that it's very much like the way you like your subject it's got to mention so I generally like kind of spot it and I would even like blow the intensity of that and I could just do that by moving back producers like you had on the end of this thing you're in the lava can be that random range so it's it's subtle right that's it so you've got your it doesn't need to be you don't need to overdo it with the light for the set designer or something in the background but there's a problem here right I've got the light hair light stand in shot so please make sure that that's not there just adjust it because it's it's very easy to like not realise that and just like I'm going to shoot a little it's fantastic okay press record and you don't notice things like to really pay attention pay attention to like everything that's on the screen I've done it before like you know it's like there's something sticking out of there so you kind of like zoom union post you could do that a little bit but you avoid it so pay attention so obviously just figured about what's happening here with the gear I mean obviously I've got that because I need to go through the gate but the idea is clean your clean your frame give it a nice claim make sure there's no distractions and show only what you want to show right if you want to like do a little fill you could and it's the same concept you could do it in many ways you could get the data light or another life and you can just shine it on the phone call and bounce it off and you probably thinking here but that is like a day light color and that's a tungsten you said no mix lighting you're a liar I was just going to say that you're a liar yeah but you can't actually makes what you can't break the rule it'll be just make sure you don't overlapped the light so you could have a little like tungsten light different color on his side and that that's except as long as you control and it's not overlapping the key light because then that would just one look pleasant but you can't because that's what you're doing with the hairline the different color you want to have a different color for you it's dimension to the hair light and you set design I mean I wouldn't do that I kind of like that so when we're shopping for lights do you I do recommend understanding what temperatures they are so that they're more balanced or do you prefer tohave things that are a little bit different so you have some that are warmer some that are cooler? Do you ever use gels to add a little bit of drama tutors that's something that you just stay away from? I would stay away from when it comes to weddings because unless there's a reason to do it you know who knows maybe things could get interesting with the clients and the couples at you book maybe you have I don't know like this alternative music guy is the groom and the way he talks about what he's into and how they met maybe they met at a rock concert right? So you know accomodate like custom your your shoot according to the personality so that's an example like maybe they're like the minute it happened they met elective at a concert and they like full alternative punk stall you know then you know what I'll probably do I'll probably use the headlight is a red light and maybe that that kind of like a little subtle phil I'll probably maybe the subtle rid maybe you can use all these principles with your non wedding stuff which you can cause with the winning stuff like it's a way for you to because there's more demand generally speaking with your wedding films so it's a great way to you know get your basics riot practice because you're doing it because it's one of those things that you do on a more regular basis whereas commercial stuff happens like maybe once a month like the big projects right right so we kind of like ready to shoot you know like I say that can probably add a little bit of just you know just be very subtle and come over here and make sure I get my color I'll just answer a question with color temperatures yes I will make sure that it's some for example some panels like the led panels they're not one hundred inch pure daylight they've got like some magenta there's a little bit magenta in them I'll kind of stay away from them when it comes to interview stuff you may get away with it with dancing but even with dancing like yeah it's a bit tricky you know removing magenta and grains and things like that because they those lights some of them you just need to watch out that they're not they say all it's daylight but you need to check the kill them and make sure there's an image entering it okay so sitting up my my frame and I just get you looking here yeah so um obviously in terms of this was like an exercise to show your lining up the subject with studio lighting the concept with mike in them and applying the radio mike at the right spot making sure that that is a point where that's not rubbing on anything you know if he's got like a jacket you want to make sure that it's not rubbing on the jacket so just avoid any like interference and I almost forgot I put one of these but you can also get like really tiny sandbags they're so small they're ideal for like your little lights and if you when you do bring lights to venu you know, I recommend that you get some of them if you don't have if you don't have them on the chute and we'd be in a situation where we don't have it, so I don't want to kind of be, like contradicting myself and, you know, pretend like there are some times when we don't have it, but we make sure that we put it in a spot where it's in the corner and not no one's going to trip over it, but make sure your cables and not like lying around and if you have to take them, take them. The rule here is all the the message here is make sure you're safe. There's no danger s o this is a pretty powerful light source and some wondering if you could tell us what your settings are right now and what di s o that what's your mac size so that you will regularly do an interview setting and also to show okay, we're on the mach three, but not everyone, not everyone has a month three okay, if you have a mark to generally, you don't want to go over. First thing I do is I look at thea thea pitcher, right, uh, I don't like it in for, you know how to use my three, um, so probably like five andi if I know is someone that kind of hell she someone that likes to move a lot I mean obviously I'll just live them hey if it's possible you know try not to move so much but I was kind of like keep reminding if it happens and just keep your aperture up with the marked tree you know you can obviously you can go higher with you because theis arranges a little bit more forgiving than the mark too in the seventy that's the one of the great features of the march through compared to mark three compared to the other cameras but because you know everyone has a mark three they may have a mark to a sixty day on dh if you have a sixty day you gotta remember about the crop factor okay and the sixty they work just fine you're just going to make sure you like it well on dh you control the light and color so with my color um you know I'm happy with their mane you know we can we can tweak that in post but like obviously that would be so about there and then with your eye so for me that's you know I would kind of keep it about their twelve fifty's just fine and fifty obviously shudder and then again with the light I still think that's because obviously we have a limited with space but that shot could be a lot better one shot that I would probably bring it further back and then do the same thing. Cut the light. So you've got two more shape you could even like, you can bring that even higher. But you get the idea. You want to shake the light and clean the frame. Very important. This this may be going back, teo. Uh, different lines and stuff. But this versus soft box. What do your takes on that? Probably a lot better. Lot better. Yeah. Go with the soft box. Yeah. I mean, the soft bucks, depending on what type it is, you probably will get us off the light coming through. Look, there's so many different options out there because you were talking about the different switches and do have an option to turn off. All lights are just have on one life or that's a really good feature. It's a good feature because, you know, you want to basically sometimes control the intensity from the actual globe. You know, you don't need like that one had, like, five banks on you need that you could go with a really simple life and, you know, with your local rental place, you know, being being contact within, you know, like go there regularly, like, sometimes it's. Good to just go to one place, and then they can kind of continue to advise you on the lights. They have a lot of the times. They have new lights coming in. It's important to kind of keep up to date with that man there is. There are so many options, so many options that you could you could go for.

Class Description

What’s the difference between a videographer and a true cinematographer? How can a single shooter successfully capture a complete wedding story? Join filmmaker Alfio Stuto for a three-day introduction to the wedding cinematographer’s mindset and toolbox. Alfio will cover everything you need to know about video storytelling, post-production workflow, attracting clients, and growing a business. You’ll learn how to choose the equipment right for you, from lenses to lighting equipment, and beyond. Alfio will share the one-of-a-kind techniques he’s developed over a decade of success as a cinematographer, including how to capture a live event through moving, evocative imagery that will last forever. By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills you need to tell a compelling, emotional story through video, with results your clients will love.